China 7-2 Laos: Euro 2008 champion coach Luis Aragones’ game analysis

The Chinese media is reporting that the Chinese Football Association is seeking an experienced European coach to replace Gao Hongbo. Luis Aragones, Spain’s Euro 2008 winning coach, is rumoured to be one of the candidates. During the China vs. Laos game, Aragones was invited to watch and analyze the match.

Before Wild East Football gives you his translated analysis, to cater to those who did not watch the game, Smari has included the match information and video highlights:

If a team could concede seven goals (Laos), that team is absolutely semi-professional class; however, if that team could score two goals against the stronger one (China), this suggests two things: 1) China is more semi-professional than its opponent, 2) the Chinese defense is lacking and can be penetrated easily.

There was no communication between the defenders, every defender only cared about his zone; a team’s defence should not only simply be a static arrangement, the defenders should have better movement to counteract their opponents.

It is a big taboo to give up goals easily in a home game, this was in part due to the Chinese coach, he were players were late in adapting to the game’s rhythm.

Regarding the substitution of Yang Xu for Gao Lin I don’t think there was anything wrong with the forward substitution; yet, I think #20 (Chen Tao) should be on the pitch before Gao Lin

Team China was able to win the game on the second half because Laos was exhausted and did not do a good job defending the lead; regarding China scored six goals, I can say the team took good opportunity of the chances, but this is pretty normal to me

I think Hao Junmin is one of China’s best players, his movement and positioning were very professional, Hao’s response is better than his teammates.

I think China team lacks a true “#10 player”, a creative and dynamic midfielder.

The Chinese team doesn’t have its own style and lacks creativity, they won the match because of the difference in ability, there are a lot of things that the team needs to improve on, technical ability is the priority.

Ever since witnessing Yang Chen’s near goal opportunity in the game of China vs. Turkey in World Cup 2002 from his bed at 3am, Smari has developed an avid interest in following the Chinese national team.
He had seen how the Chinese team was worshiped as gods during the World Cup 2002 and Asian Cup 2004, and how they are treated like shit since the failure to qualify for the World Cup 2006.
Smari joined Wild East Football as a contributor because he realized there is a need for the world to know about Chinese football. There is an almost bare minimum amount of English language forums or websites that strictly talk about Chinese football, the Chinese Super League, the Chinese national team, etc.
The world needs to know that Chinese football is not about Shaolin football, corruption, diving, and cheating; we are about playing with our heart to bring smiles to our already embarrassed fans.
Smari hopes he would be able to witness the improvement of Chinese football and spend all his life savings to watch Guojiadui’s second World Cup appearance at whatever venue, even a warzone.
Apart from writing/translating Chinese football news, Smari loves playing mahjang, imitating how Samri Nasri dribbles in the Emirates pitch, watching how Adam Johnson terrorizes his rivals, learning bar tending to make up his reason for consistent drunkenness, being artistically weird by shooting abstract photos, and defeating boringism in his mundane life.
He also loves traveling, and he hopes to have his own apartment that is filled with national team jerseys from every country he visited.
Smari often attributes his depression to the current dire state of Chinese football, let’s hope he won’t turn insane soon.

“Wang bristles at comparisons to Abramovich.
“I feel ashamed to be mentioned with him,” said Wang, who does not own a club, but founded Dalian Wanda, now called Dalian Shide.
“He treats soccer as a kind of amusement in his luxury life, while I am really concerned about the sport’s poor situation in the country. I am keen to lift it from the valley.”

(Nice sentiment – but will be interesting to see if the new coach can go upstream or digs a deeper hole in the valley)

“Wang bristles at comparisons to Abramovich.
“I feel ashamed to be mentioned with him,” said Wang, who does not own a club, but founded Dalian Wanda, now called Dalian Shide.
“He treats soccer as a kind of amusement in his luxury life, while I am really concerned about the sport’s poor situation in the country. I am keen to lift it from the valley.”

(Nice sentiment – but will be interesting to see if the new coach can go upstream or digs a deeper hole in the valley)